March 9, 2006

Sleep was good. I am up and packing gear to leave Kuwait for Iraq. Call baby and head downstairs. We don't eat this morning because of the flight into Iraq. May cause vomiting due to maneuvers going in. I cheated though and had to get a Starbuck's mocha.

Here now, in a hurry up and wait pattern.

We sat and waited for one or two hours for the flats with the gear to get loaded. General Frutiger started to get aggravated. We finally get on board and strapped in, but still waiting on gear to get loaded. I'm in and out of naps. A couple of soldiers who are going into Iraq load up on the plane with us. One sits bedside me. Both are in early 20's- we take off for an 11/2-hour ride. And I sleep. When we finally come to a stop and I wake up, I find out that we are back in Kuwait. Apparently there was a bad sand storm – they call white out. No visibility and we cannot land. We unload gear and head inside the airport where we order lunch and regroup. I nap some more. The ambien is kicking my butt. Eddie also mentioned that the stomach pill we took for motion sickness might make you sleepy too. After pizza and subs, we load back up on the bus and head back to the hotel. I come back up and nap some more! Call Angie. I call every chance I get. I miss my girls!

Since we didn't make Iraq today, the USO puts an evening performance together at Camp Arifjan where we first met Col. Miller. Get up from my nap and get ready for a 6:30pm lobby call. I stop and get a Turkish coffee that Robin turned me onto before leaving. We head to the gig. We have to cut the show a little since we got a late start. Show went really well. Everyone seemed to like it. I smoked a cigar from the PX with General Frutiger and we do our meet and greet with everyone. We have some more NA beer and head back to the hotel. We arrive back about midnight. And I am having another night of no sleep. Afraid to take another ambient after today's effect!